A conventional male terminal inspecting tool of a connector will be explained first.
FIG. 1A is a front view of a conventional male terminal inspecting tool of a connector; and FIG. 1B is a plan view of the conventional male terminal inspecting tool of a connector.
Reference numeral 21 indicates a base frame, and reference numeral 22 indicates a connector holder attached to the base frame 21. The connector holder 22 holds a connector 31 to be inspected.
Reference numeral 23 indicates a pin receiver moving in a left and right direction in the figure along a guide key 32. The pin receiver 23 is biased to the leftward direction in the figure by a coil spring 30 attached to a guide shaft 27 fixed to the base frame 21 and is located at an illustrated position where an operation lever 26 is not operated. An engagement depression 25 engaging with a front end portion of the connector 31 is provided in the pin receiver 23, and a conductive pin 24 for performing the conduction inspection is provided in the engagement depression 25.
An insulator cap 38 having a hole into which the male terminal of the connector 31 to be inspected can be inserted is provided at the center of the front end of the conductive pin 24. When the conductive pin 24 moves toward the male terminal of the connector 31 by the pivoting of the operation lever 26, if the male terminal of the connector 31 is normal, the male terminal of the connector 31 will be inserted into that hole. However, where there is abnormal deformation or the like in the male terminal of the connector 31, the male terminal will not be inserted into that hole at the inspection of conduction, but will be caught by the insulator cap 38 or turned away to the side of the insulator cap 38, so it cannot contact with the conductive pin 24, and thus the male terminal of the connector 31 and the conductive pin 24 will not be conductive. By detecting this nonconductive state, an abnormality of the male terminal of the connector 31 can be electrically detected.
Reference numeral 26 indicates the operation lever. As illustrated in FIG. 2, by pivoting this in a clockwise direction A, the left end portion of the pin receiver 23 is brought into contact with the cam surface of the operation lever 26, and the pin receiver 23 is moved to the right direction R. Further, the operation lever 26 pivots about a pivot pin 28. When it is not operated, the pivoting is stopped by a lever stopper 29.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the operation state at the conduction inspection of the male terminal inspecting tool of a connector shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B.
When inspecting for conduction of the connector 31, the connector 31 is mounted on the connector holder 22 and the operation lever 26 is pivoted in the clockwise direction A in FIG. 2. By this, the pin receiver 23 moves to the right direction R in FIG. 2 against a biasing force of the coil spring 30 attached to the guide shaft 27, and the engagement depression of the pin receiver 23 engages with the front end portion of the male terminal of the connector 31.
Here, where the male terminal 39 of the connector 31 is normal as designed, the male terminal 39 will be inserted into the hole at which the insulator cap 38 is provided and will contact the conductive pin 24. By electrically detecting this contact state, for example by turning on a lamp or the like, it can be detected if the male terminal 39 is normal.
However, in the conventional male terminal inspecting tool of a connector, the conductive pin 24 exhibits a column-like shape having an outer diameter of about 0.2 to 0.3 mm, but in contrast, the male terminal 39 of the connector 31 which becomes the opposite side of contact exhibits a block-like shape having a width of about 1 to 3 mm, therefore the allowable range of contact with the front end of the conductive pin 24, i.e., the so-called "conductable range", is large, so there is the inconvenience that even if the male terminal 39 of the connector 31 is slightly bent, it will not be inserted into the hole of the conductive pin 24 resulting in "defect" state (or abnormal state) outside of the designed value and a correct inspection result cannot be obtained.
Further, where the front end of the conductive pin 39 deviates in position due to an unexpected cause, even if the male terminal 39 of the connector 31 suffers from abnormal deformation, it may contact the area near the center portion of the longitudinal direction of the conductive pin 39 while missing the insulator cap 38 at the front end of the conductive pin 24. In this case, in spite of the fact that the male terminal 39 of the connector 31 is defective (abnormal), when the conduction state is electrically detected, there is a possibility of an erroneous recognition that it is normal due to the conduction.
Further, in the conventional male terminal inspecting tool of a connector, when the male terminal 39 of the connector 31 is defective, if the operation lever 26 is pivoted too much, the male terminal 39 of the connector 31 which is not inserted into the hole of the conductive pin 24 will be bent by a large amount on the periphery of the insulator cap 38 and the male terminal 39 of the connector 31 will be broken.